Christina and Matthew in the water at Evan's Plunge!
Part of the area of Evan's Plunge!
We left for our South Dakota vacation July 18th and returned home on July 27th. We opted to drive because it was cheaper for us to drive than it was to fly. At the time we looked at flying, airfare was $400-500 a piece. It only cost about$200 to get there in gas and $100 for hotel for an overnight stay! We were crazy not to drive (more money for fun in South Dakota)! The only bad thing about driving was that it took about 19 hours to get there! It wasn't a bad drive though. I think the worst of it was Nebraska and that was only bad because of all the cornfields! And I mean cornfields!!!! Madison was pretty good, even considering she only took her one usual nap of the day. Her DVD player was a blessing. Unfortunately it broke our second day of traveling, but don't worry momma made daddy pull in to the first Best Buy we seen to replace it! Between the DVD player and the other activites toys I got her, our ride went smoothly.
South Dakota was a blast! The first stop we made was before we checked into our hotel. We seen signs for an 1880 Town and Madison was starting to get a little restless, so we decided to stop to walk in the town and to eat some supper. They had "Dances with Wolves" memoribilia inside as well as some equipment and tools used back then. Outside was the little town that had all kinds of old buildings from an outhouse to a schoolhouse. We liked the jail the best! We posed in the cells and were amused they had a noose for all the 'bad varmits' in another. After getting checked in to our hotel, we relaxed and watched a little tv before heading to bed.
Our first full day in South Dakota, Fern made an appointment to go horse back riding for three hours or so. If we didn't have Madison with us, I probably would have went too, but Madison was too young. So while Fern was horseback riding, Madison and I went to the Flintstone park were they had the Flintstone village arranged so you can see into each of the little houses. They also had a train that Madison and I went on several times that took us around the park and they had a playground area that Madison played on. We still ended up waiting for Fern to get through with his horseback riding. After Fern got done with his ride, we ate supper, and then back to the hotel...we were still a little tired from our car ride.
The next day, we headed to "The Dinosaur Park" where they had huge cement statues of dinosaurs. Madison was so excited to get to see the dinosaurs! She kept saying, "WOW! DINOSAURS!" After the dinosaur park, we then headed to "Storybook Island" which they had a lot of all the story book characters in statues! Madison could actually get inside, crawl, and play in everything on her own and I had fun taking pictures of everything. After we were done with Storybook Island, we headed over to Old MacDonald's Farm. It was a little on the boring side for my husband and I, but Madison enjoyed petting and playing with all the animals. Old MacDonald had a cow, sheep, goat, billy goats, ponies, bunnies, pigs, donkeys, chickens, turkies...you get the point. After the farm we got a crazy idea try to do one of the caves. The one we had went to originally, The Jewel Cave, was not doing anymore tours when we arrived. The second one we went to, Sitting Bull Cavern, had a 10 story straight down ladder that you had to climb down and the guide did not recommend us going with Madison because one of us would have to hold her....yeah, what idiot would climb down a ladder 10 stories holding a 25lbs little girl who doesn't always hold on! We opted not to do that cave and headed to The Blackhills Cave! We opted to do the one hour tour of that cave (which at the time seemed easy), but Madison wanted to be held by momma the whole hour because she was scared of 'the dark'. The cave wasn't much to look at, but we sure did get our exercise that day and Fern walked out with a little bit of rocks in his pocket! (I couldn't figure out why it would take so long for him to catch up...he was falling behind to pocket rocks!!!!). After the tour, we headed back to the hotel because my mom had called and said they were landing at the airport and they would be at the hotel in an hour or so (they went to Michigan for my grandfather's surprise b-day party first and then met us in South Dakota). However, on our way to the hotel, we passed this park where there were tons and tons of geese just walking around so we decided to stop and take in the pretty scenery and check out the geese....one wouldn't imagine all the poop those things produce! After the park, we headed to the hotel to meet my mom, sister, nephew, and brother in law and then headed to dinner.
The first day of the gang in South Dakota we went on a bus tour-we went to a Gold Mine, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park...believe it or not they had Texas LongHorn at one of the residences in the park and my sister I commented on how lucky those longhorns were that they were getting eaten by fire ants and they get to enjoy 80 degree weather and not 100+ degree weather!!! Custer State Park was interesting! We seen a lot of wildlife, including buffalo, but the roads-pigtails turns! Dear Lord, if I was the bus driver we would have driven right over the cliff! The neatest feature to the roads were that there were three tunnels that while you were passing through the tunnels it would one way or another create a frame around Mount Rushmore faces-just like a picture!
The next day, we went to The Reptile Gardens and seen some alligator wrestling and all other reptiles and birds...then it was off to Deadwood to see "The Roo Ranch" where we all got to touch a kangaroo! You wouldn't believe how soft they were! We then went to a big putt putt and game park that we had a blast at. Me, Madison, and Matthew got on the bumper boats and got absolutely soaked! I think I still would have gotten soaked even if my dear old sister wouldn't have shouted to the little kids, "Get the lady with the brown hair!". To fill the day, the ladies and children went to the "Wall Drug Store" while the men went to the Badlands!
Our second to last day there, we got up extra early to catch the 1880 train which took us on a two hour ride. We also did the Alpine Slide that day in which we went up to the top to the slide in a tram (like a ski lift) and then you had to choice to take the tram down or slide down the slide. The first time we went down, I opted to have Madison go back down on the tram with my mom, but after she got to see me slide down and when I met her at the bottom, she told me she wanted to slide...so we went again with Madison sliding down with me the second time. Madison absolutely loved it too! While going down the slide screamed, "Go faster!"From the slide we went to Bear Country USA (it was a drive through wildlife park that features wolves, reindeer, mountain lions, and bears. They had a baby bear exhibit that I heard Baylor University gets their mascot from.
On our last day, we did the Custer Park drive because someone got a hair brain idea that it was a short cut to head to Custer in order for my hubby to get a hat, in which he ended up not getting after the long car ride in which this time made me car sick! The women, Madison, and Matthew spent the day at Evan's Plunge which was a natural spring that year round it's 86 degree's but they made it into in miniature water park with slides. While we were at Evan's Plunge, the guys went exploring a cave. I opted out of the cave after the first one! I wasn't going to carry Madison through another cave! We had a lot more fun playing in the water!
Sunday, we headed home (not before getting in one more ride down the alpine slide!). On our way home, we found one person selling Nebraska corn on the side of the road. We got some...put in the the front with us....yup, forgot how many bugs come out of corn!!!!! (We were even intelligent enough to leave the corn in the car while we checked into a hotel for the night...that's when the bugs made their escape out of the corn and into the car!)
Pictures to post later...too tired to post tonight!